Measuring the sustainability of Latin American capital cities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the living conditions in ten capital cities in Latin America to propose indicators that could help to quantify the sustainability of those capital cities, and its impact over the competitiveness of a country. Design/methodology/approach It is proposed a linear model summing the score of ten quantifiable indicators and according with the result categorize the capitals as "sustainable city," "weak sustainability" and "threatened sustainability." Findings There is a good relationship between the sustainability of the city and the competitiveness of the country. This is the case of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Santiago, followed by Lima, La Paz and Bogota a similar result to the rank obtained by Mckinsey Global Institute (2011a, b). It is found that the four capitals categorized as "sustainable" have the highest potable water production, but it was not define a direct correlation between a country's competitiveness and the development of important medium-sized cities. Research limitations/implications - Limited availability of comparable information for the capital cities. Practical implications - The results identified the need to improve specific services and conditions of the inhabitants. Social implications - The capital cities concentrate the majority of the population of the countries reaching one-third of the total in four out of the ten cities evaluated. Originality/value The study presents selected indicators not in use to classify the cities sustainability.